6 CCEE Students Receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
It’s a record year for graduate students in CCEE. Six students have received a prestigious fellowship that will support them for three years.
It’s a record year for graduate students at NC State’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (CCEE), with six students receiving National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships (GRFP).
The fellowship program supports outstanding graduate students who are doing important research in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The six CCEE students who received the fellowship this year are:
How the Fellowship Supports Students
The GRFP offers financial support, giving students more freedom and time to focus on their important research. To be considered for the fellowship, each student submitted an application with a two-page research proposal and personal statement.
“The goal of the fellowship is to advance science and give back to people,” Harris said. “It’s important to understand how your science connects the community, and how you’re understanding gaps in science.”
The fellowship provides each student with a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 along with a $16,000 cost of education allowance.
“This fellowship will help me continue my research by taking my basic financial needs out of the equation,” Shay said. “Not only can I pursue novel research without any external support, I can more easily form partnerships to pursue my research goals as potential partners no longer have to commit to funding me.”
The NSF has funded more than 70,000 graduate research fellows since 1952, with more than 40 becoming Nobel Prize winners and more than 450 becoming members of the National Academy of Sciences.
More on Student Research
From roadways to water systems and coastal environments, these CCEE graduate students are working to make positive changes in the world.
Learn more about some of the fellowship winners’ research below:
Assata Harris
Harris is an environmental engineering graduate student researching toxins in drinking water. Chemical disinfectants, such as chlorine, are used to reduce the risk of pathogens in drinking water. However, these chemicals can react with naturally occurring organic matter in water, creating toxic byproducts.
“They’re called disinfection byproducts,” Harris said. “We do regulate some of them, but there’s a lot that we don’t regulate, and there are a lot that are still present in our drinking water. Through my research, I’m trying to understand, ‘what’s really driving toxicity?’”
Carter Shay
Shay is an environmental engineering graduate student with a focus on designing green stormwater infrastructure (GSI)—a nature-based solution to control stormwater runoff.
“GSI is an engineering technique that uses or mimics nature to accomplish the main goal of stormwater management while offering additional co-benefits, such as providing nature, recreational space and biodiversity to communities,” Shay said. “Since these co-benefits are harder to quantify and mean different things to different people, my research aims to provide tools to better understand the costs/benefits of GSI and how best to implement GSI to meet the goals of all stakeholders.”
Leif Rasmussen
Rasmussen studies transportation systems engineering. His research focuses on innovative technologies that improve transportation without a car, such as safer bike lanes, autonomous trains and smarter traffic signals to improve emergency vehicle response times.
“Driving in North Carolina is getting slower and more expensive every year, and there is a significant portion of the population who do not have the means to drive,” Rasmussen said. “Creating truly viable alternatives to driving is essential to maintaining and improving the high quality of life we enjoy in North Carolina.”
Perri Woodard
Woodard is conducting research in environmental engineering with public health applications. She’s hoping to develop methods to use silicone wristbands as a tool to measure exposure to disinfection byproducts.
“Silicone wristbands have been used for measuring exposure to PFAS, flame retardants and other chemicals, but they haven’t been used with disinfection byproducts yet,” Woodard said. “That’s what I hope to be studying in the future.”
William Chapman
Chapman studies transportation materials, specifically asphalt pavements. His research focuses on characterizing asphalt binders extracted from recycled pavement.
“This fellowship will support my graduate studies as I work to develop sustainable and effective asphalt recycling solutions to meet modern transportation demands,” Chapman said.
Congratulations to the graduate students for receiving this prestigious fellowship.
